Why would someone play a Barbarian over a Primalist Bloodrager?
Search Posts
Move action as told in the Studied combat description. It has more weight then a modifier of that ability. So normally move with quick study a swift. There are lots of typos in this book. This is one of them. Yeah, the QA department really dropped the ball on that one. The investigator is an interesting class, but gosh this book is full of contradictory elements.
On page 33 of the ACG, under Quick Study (Ex), it is said that "An investigator can use his studied combat ability as a swift action instead of a standard action." On page 34 of the ACG, under Studied Combat (Ex), it is said that "At 4th level, an investigator can use a move action to study a single enemy that he can see." So activating Studied Combat is a standard action or a move action?
I'm guessing that default Inspiration is supposed to be limited to Investigator class skills too. That's how I would resolve this issue.
Will we get Style Feats designed with the Fighter in mind, instead of the Monk? An armed Fighter should be able to fight with style too!
Cramped spaces do a lot to balance things. So true.
I wouldn't.
Can we expect multiclassed monsters? That would be awesome.
Think about it this way: if you don't care about the ACP, then using a tower shield is better than using the Combat Expertise feat, and if you are a Fighter, using a tower shield does not cost you any feat.
Among the 10 stat blocks for each monster, will there be at least one "grunt" NPC with levels in the Warrior class? As much as I like using humanoid monsters with class levels in my games, monsters with levels in a PC class tend to have way too much wealth for the challenge they pose to the PCs, resulting in a situation where the PCs end up with too much wealth for their level.Typically no. The "grunt" versions of monsters are the ones given in the Bestiary. Most of those have warrior levels. In the case of monsters with racial hit dice, I totally agree, but 1st-level warrior humanoid with 0 racial hit die, like the ones in the Bestiary, quickly become irrelevant as ''grunts''. Nonetheless, this book is going to make my conversion of "Red Hand of Doom" to Pathfinder much more easier, which is a good thing.
Among the 10 stat blocks for each monster, will there be at least one "grunt" NPC with levels in the Warrior class? As much as I like using humanoid monsters with class levels in my games, monsters with levels in a PC class tend to have way too much wealth for the challenge they pose to the PCs, resulting in a situation where the PCs end up with too much wealth for their level.
The Book of Elves, from AD&D 2nd Edition, had stats for "elven" dogs. They were like dogs, but cooler and more "elven", you know.
Dotting because I like turn-based strategy games.
1-3 levels of Rogue (Thug Archetype) for a Fighter with Dazzling Display or a Barbarian with Intimidating Glare is awesome!
The game is 50% off on Steam this weekend. I'm still on the fence about getting it or not.
Meanwhile the Wizard is dropping a good spell or two and shutting down the entire enemy team in the same amount of time before he goes back to remaking reality in his own image. So why is the first one the most distressing? Just curious: how much times per day these optimized blaster wizards can trump dedicated martials in terms of DPR?
Who knows, it might be fun! Kind of like playing X-COM: Enemy Within with Training Roulette turned on.
Thread necromancy, I know, but this episode of the dungeon bastard sums up my exact feelings about point buy versus dice rolls for stats.I too enjoyed the sarcastic slippery slope argument. Unless that wasn't sarcasm. Then I am concerned... Yeah but for character creation to be truly random, one would have to roll his class too. :P Sadly, there is no 18-sided dice.
Kobolds can be commando kobolds that will automatically hit your tower shield-wielding, ring of protection-wearing, full plate-clad character with fire arrows.
Rolled stats can be benefical to balance between the party members IF the GM can convince the high-rollers to play less effective classes and the low-rollers to play more powerful classes, but good luck with that. ;)
While I prefer the points buy system for its fairness, I do like the more ''organic'' feeling of rolled ability scores.
I don't get the hate for the Anti-Paladin. You guys are aware that the Anti-Paladin has been around for quite a while right?.. I must say that I would have preferred the Antipaladin as a class of its own, instead of a reverse copy-paste of the Paladin (I like Aura of Despair though). But anyway, I prefer playing a Fighter/Cleric or a Fighter/Inquisitor with the alignment and the code of conduct of my choice rather than being forced to play the paragon of Lawful Good or Chaotic Evil. The Warpriest is the class from the ACG that I'm the more looking forward to.
Alchemist I'm not a huge fan. The bombs seem a bit limited compared to full arcane casting. I don't like the mutagens as a standard class feature; why is EVERY standard alchemist a Hyde? That said, I suppose the alchemist could be a decent stand-in for the wizard if you want a slightly more low-fantasy game, like Ravenloft. Unless you have taken levels into the Master Chymist class, your mutagen does not turn you into a Hyde, at least not more than the rage class feature of the Barbarian. Mechanically speaking, it's only a free Bull's Strength/Cat's Grace/Bear's Endurance potion mixed with a Barkskin potion with an increased duration. Is it the -2 penalty to a mental stat, or the fluff associated with this class feature (according to the APG, the mutagen makes the Alchemist more bulky) that bothers you so much? I mean, the mutagen class feature, or its suggested fluff, is so much more easy to ignore than, let's say, the bomb class feature. In my current campaign, I have a player that almost never use his mutagen, focusing entirely on his bombs and extracts. Meanwhile, in another campaign where I play a ''switch-hitter'' Alchemist, I rely heavily on my mutagen for melee combat.
Thanks to his 6 skill points/level, a usually high Int, a good selection of class skills, utility spells like invisibility and such, the Alchemist can easily fill up to "Rogue" slot in any given party.Nice point about the witcher, but alchemist get 4+int per level. True. I corrected my mistake in the post above, thanks!
Alchemist: I'll be honest, I'm not really a big fan of the Alchemist. I just never honestly saw the point in it. It's basically a class revolving around potion-brewing, with a little treading on the Barbarian's heels via its Mutagen feature. Ultimate Magic made it a little more attractive, but still, I would probably never play one myself. I suppose if you were determined to run a caster-free game it's a good finangle, but, yeah, honestly I see the Alchemist's various bombs and the like as something better off folded into the Gunslinger, or else used as part of a more "Mad Scientist" typed class. I had mixed feelings about the Alchemist when I first read about it. Throw Anything and Bombs seemed to shoehorn the Alchemist into a "Mad Bomber" character type while mutagens presented a "Mr Hyde" alternative. Sure, you can indeed specialize in either of these two paths, and be very effective at what you do, but I discovered, with time and playtesting, that the Alchemist can be so much more. Ever heard of the Witcher? There's no better class than the Alchemist to mechanically simulate Gerald of Rivia. Since extracts can be used in heavy armor, playing an Alchemist is a bit like playing a self-buffing Eldritch Knight (Fighter/Transmuter) with no Arcane Spell Failure chance, more skills, poison use and energy damage-dealing, debuffing and battlefield control blast spells (bombs). Thanks to his 4 skill points/level, a usually high Int, a good selection of class skills, utility spells like invisibility and such, the Alchemist can easily fill up the "Rogue" slot in any given party. Need to unlock this particularly well locked door? Quaff a Dex-boosting mutagen and a Cat's Grace extract or potion you crafted and look at the Rogue cry (alchemy bonuses stack with enhancement bonuses). Furthermore, thanks to his ability-scores-altering class features, which are much more customizable than the Barbarian rage by the way, the Alchemist also makes the perfect 5th wheel of the party. The guy playing the Fighter in your party could not show up for the game tonight? No problem, just quaff a Str-boosting mutagen, an extract/potion of enlarge person and an extract/potion of Bull's Strength and crush opponents with DR\- under your mighty blows. The Wizard just ran out of fire spells to burn those annoying trolls? No problem, you have enough bombs to reduce them to cinder. Finally, the Infusion discovery let you buff your allies in never seen before ways. Truly, the Alchemist is a Jack or all trades at his core: whether you choose to focus on a specific aspect of the class, or try to expand even further his versatility, is up to you.
I can say with perfect certainty that it wasn't the thematic representation Paizo was going for. The fact it's one of the only functionally effective ways to make a Rogue work is an incredible failing.Real concerns for a Rogue include Pointbuy hamstringing his options and thematic representation. If you knew him, Marthkus absolutely despises the thought of the full-plate STR rogue.What's wrong with full-plate wearing STR rogues? I like them! I agree. The fact that it "can work" is not a failing per se, but the fact that it's one of the few way to build a viable rogue is indeed a failing.
Real concerns for a Rogue include Pointbuy hamstringing his options and thematic representation. If you knew him, Marthkus absolutely despises the thought of the full-plate STR rogue. What's wrong with full-plate wearing STR rogues? I like them!
Rogue is a better class to dip one level in than bard IMHO.What does one level of Rogue give you that is better than Arcane Strike and Enlarge Person? Depends on your other class. Good luck with casting Enlarge Person in Medium or Heavy Armor.
Rogue is a better class to dip one level in than bard IMHO.
Pillars of Eternity will look a lot like Icewind Dale II in style, but the game will use its own system instead of the D&D ruleset. However, a lot a spells, abilities and classes were directly inspired by D&D.
Titan, Thanatotic.
Behold the game that will never be (the game was cancelled): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoPVPOxdQu4
"plus auction off current Royal Family to one of the countries that love 'em" You mean Canada?
This is going to be the first 3rd-party product that I'll buy. But since I move around a lot lately, I'll wait until the ''backorder'' status is removed from the product before purchasing it, because I don't want the book to be delivered to a place where I don't live anymore.
I hope that Enemy Within will let you have female soldiers with shaved hair. Not bald, shaved! Rebalancing some of the skills would also be nice.
It's good, but the original campaing is so linear and so easy (even on very hard) and the AI is so bad that I don't think that I will do more than one playthrough. Maybe the Berlin campaing will fix some of those issues.
I don't understand how a poison with a ''/'' in its Effect square works. Can someone explain it to me please? Example: Sassone leaf residue - Effect: 2d12 hp/1 Con
One thing I would really like to see in Enemy Within is humans vs humans, maybe with some rogue aliens scattered across the globe, wreacking havoc, leaderless and purposeless since the destruction of their mother ship. That would be awesome. :)
Magic Resistance?
UPDATE: I'm only 4 hours into it, and I'm already bored. The combat is dull, unchallenging, and tedious, and there's not much else to do besides combat. Are you playing on the very hard difficulty? Still, I only had to reload once yet.
The music in the Shadowrunners' hideout is great!
the game often didn't feel like part of the STAR WARS universe. I think this is actually a good thing because Georges Lucas utterly destroyed the STAR WARS universe. =^.^=
Also, I don't get the auto-save issue. It prevents save scumming and I have never been more than 15-20 minutes away from a save 4 hours in. Did it ever happen to you to have to stop playing like, ''right now''? I don't know, maybe your ride is outside, waiting, or you just received a call from your boss, asking if you can go to work to replace someone who's sick. Sometimes, you just don't have 15-20 min to save and quit a game, and losing progress in a RPG is never fun.
Well, the thing that hurts Mask of the Betrayer story the most is the fact that MotB is the sequel of the horrible NWN II OC, which was still better than the original NWN OC. It is like trying to build a magnificent castle on top of stinking quicksand. I don't recall Storm of Zehir being very stong, storywise. Was fun for the sandbox/openworld feel though. KotOR II had better writings than KotOR IMO, and more world-changing choices, but KotOR feels more polished. Both games have a very stong beginning, but the ending of KotOR II feels rushed. I can't tell which one of the two is my favorite. P.S.: Have you tried Shadowrun Returns yet? The text-heavy aspect of the game kind of reminds me of Torment, but I never completed Torment. The theme is very different though, and Shadowrun Returns feels more modest than Torment, storywise.
I would say storywise, it is superior to NWN's original campaign. I would say that, storywise, it is superior to any NWN and NWN II expansion. Yeah, that one dialogue with you know who in Mask of the Betrayer was pretty awesome, and Hordes of the Underdark was decent, but KotOR and KotOR II are still superior IMO. The only thing NWN and NWN II have over KotOR and KotOR II is the campaign editor and customization: there's more classes, races, feats and spells in NWN than in KotOR.
KotOR and KotOR II were the best games on the original XBOX hands down.
No manual save, what were they thinking? o_O
Thanks for the link Scott!
|